- In The News
- September 2024
Politico Pro: Governors launch new effort to bolster clean energy workforce
September 23, 2024
Politico Pro covers the Alliance’s launch of the Governors’ Climate-Ready Workforce Initiative during Climate Week NYC 2024.
“A group of governors launched an initiative Monday to deal with a projected workforce shortage in the clean energy industry by training 1 million people by 2035 to do those jobs.
The Democrats’ climate law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, combined with the bipartisan infrastructure law and CHIPS and Science Act, are beginning to drive increased private sector investments in electric vehicles, batteries, solar, wind and other clean technologies. But the clean energy industry doesn’t have enough workers to match that level of growth.
The initiative, the details of which were first obtained by POLITICO, aims to build a robust labor supply, possibly by using state and federal funds to train workers for these jobs through apprenticeship programs.
‘I’m seeing this in real terms. It’s not a statistic. It’s real flesh and blood people in my state getting these jobs,’ Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in an interview.”
About the Alliance
Launched in 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by the U.S. federal government’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the Alliance has grown to include 24 governors from across the U.S. representing approximately 60 percent of the U.S. economy and 55 percent of the U.S. population. Governors in the Alliance have pledged to collectively reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28 percent by 2025, 50-52 percent by 2030, and 61-66 percent by 2035, all below 2005 levels, and collectively achieve overall net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as practicable, and no later than 2050.
The Alliance’s states and territories continue to advance innovative and impactful climate solutions to grow the economy, create jobs, and protect public health, and have a long record of action and results. In fact, the latest data shows that as of 2023, the Alliance has reduced its collective net greenhouse gas emissions by 24 percent below 2005 levels, while increasing collective GDP by 34 percent, and is on track to meet its near-term climate goal of reducing collective greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
###
